Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a package of controversial new laws that extend the government’s powers to label individuals and organizations as “foreign agents” and introduce a number of new restrictions on media organizations.
Sputnik / Mihail Klimentiev / Kremlin
The new laws are expanding “foreign agent” legislation adopted in 2012, which allowed the authorities to apply the label of human rights groups and other organizations receiving funding from outside Russia. This has led to the closure of Russian offices of major non-governmental organizations, legal proceedings and fines in recent years. The legislation was updated last year to make it applicable to individuals, including journalists and bloggers.
The amendments signed by the president on Wednesday extend the parameters on the basis of which a person or entity can be officially considered a “foreign agent” in Russia, a term that has negative connotations during the Cold War.
“Foreign agents”
According to the law, Russian or foreign citizens who receive assistance from abroad and engage in political activities “in the interest of a foreign state” must register as foreign agents.
Critics of the legislation point out that the legal definition of “political activity” is extremely broad, including, for example, election monitoring, providing opinions on state policies – including through comments on social media – and participating in rallies.
The definition gives the authorities the scope of the law against any dissenting voice before next year’s parliamentary elections.
Amnesty International condemned the bill last month, warning it signaled “a new witch hunt” in Russia.
“It exposes the belief of the Russian authorities that civil society actors are destructive agents of the West that are aimed at destabilizing the government,” said Natalia Prilutskaya, a Russian researcher at Amnesty International. “Russian authorities have already financially starved civil society and forced many organizations to close. It is now further demonizing individual activists.”
According to the extended law, foreign journalists can be added to the official list of “foreign agents” if state officials decide that they have done something “incompatible with the professional activities of a journalist.”
“Foreign agents” are subject to restrictions, including the provision of financial reports on their activities and identification as such in Russian publications. A separate bill signed by Putin on Wednesday imposes penalties ranging from fines to up to five years in prison for designated foreign agents who fail to register or report their activities as needed.
Parliamentarian Vasily Piskarev, a sponsor of the bill, defended the initiative, insisting that it is necessary to protect “the sovereignty of the Russian Federation and prevent interference in the internal affairs of our state.”
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Justice added a prominent support organization Russian victims of domestic violence, Nasiliu.Net, on its list of “foreign agents”, causing outrage among rights activists. The ministry also added five people, including 79-year-old veteran rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, a longtime critic of Putin, to the list of foreign media agents, along with four others, including a journalist. for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
Restricting the press and everyone else
Putin ended the year by signing dozens of other bills on Wednesday, of which he expects to further strengthen his leadership. One of them allows Russian regulators to block all or part of Internet platforms that “discriminate” against state media.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Twitter is currently labeling some Russian media as “state-affiliated media”, which has been criticized by Moscow officials. YouTube has blocked several pro-Kremlin channels this year, a move the Russian authorities have ridiculed as an “act of censorship.”
The authors of the bill said that it targets foreign social networks, but can also be used against Russian platforms.
Another law passed by the president prohibits the organization of political rallies near emergency services buildings, such as police stations or intelligence agencies.
The exchange of personal data or information about the work of intelligence officers or law enforcement agencies is now a crime – an initiative seen as a reaction to recent media investigations conducted by Bellingcat organization, which used disclosed data to disclose the names, photographs and telephone numbers of alleged FSB officers involved in the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.